ARTICLES ABOUT G 20 BY DATE - PAGE 3

BRISBANE: In a major gain for India, the G20 summit today endorsed the government's line on the need for transparency and disclosure of tax information as Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought a new global standard on automatic exchange to tackle the issue of black money. Raising the pitch on the black money issue, Modi in his intervention at the summit of the Group of 20 industrialised and major emerging economies called for close global coordination to address the challenge posed by it. The new standard will be instrumental in getting information relating to unaccounted money hoarded abroad and enable its eventual repatriation, Modi said, utilising the forum of G20, which accounts for 85 per cent of world's GDP. Modi while voicing India's support for it urged every jurisdiction, especially tax havens, to provide information for tax purposes in accordance with treaty obligations.

BRISBANE: The G20 leaders today committed to put in place a mechanism for automatic exchange of tax information between member countries by 2017, an issue which has been continuously raised by India at international fora to check the menace of black money. The leaders of 20 developing and developed countries also endorsed the action plan to tackle Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS), which would be finalised in 2015, to make sure companies pay their fair share of tax. Besides Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the G20 summit was attended by global leaders including US President Barack Obama and United Kingdom PM David Cameron and others.

By Sreeram Chaulia The ninth summit of the G20 group of major economies in Brisbane, Australia, is a meeting ground for politicians that matter at a moment when the world is struggling to move past the economic crisis which began six years ago. Heads of governments convening in Brisbane have the challenge of a lifetime on their hands. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has downgraded economic growth projections for both advanced and emerging markets, forecasting gloomy "clouds", "uncertainties" and unresolved "legacies" from the crash of 2008.

BRISBANE: As India makes attempts to recover black money from abroad, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today asked every country, especially tax havens, to provide information for tax purposes in accordance with treaty obligations. Raising the pitch on the black money issue, Modi in his intervention at the summit of the Group of 20 industrialised and major emerging economies called for close global coordination to address the challenge posed by it. Modi voiced India's support for a new global standard on automatic exchange of tax information, saying it would be instrumental in getting information relating to unaccounted money hoarded abroad and enable its eventual repatriation.

BRISBANE: Taking concerns of India and other developing countries on board, the G20 today vowed to take "strong practical" measures to reduce the global average cost of transferring remittances to five per cent. India, which is world's largest recipient of remittances with $71 billion sent last year, pushed for a reduction in the remittance costs of non-residents at the G20 summit that ended today, asking it to work on steps to reduce costs in sending money home from abroad which is as high as 10 per cent in some countries.

BRISBANE: Leaders of the world's 20 developed and emerging economies today vowed to boost global GDP by over $2 trillion over next five years by investing in infrastructure and increasing trade, aimed at boosting the global recovery amid geopolitical tensions. In a three-page statement issued at the end of G20 Summit here, the world leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama, said, "raising global growth to deliver better living standards and quality jobs for people across the world is our highest priority.

BRISBANE: World Bank President Jim Yong Kim Saturday welcomed the call to action on Ebola by leaders of the Group of 20 (G20), the world's largest developed countries and emerging economies. "This is an important commitment to combat Ebola and address the terrible human and economic impact of the outbreak in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone ," the president said on the sidelines of the G20 summit here. G20 leaders issued a statement Saturday pledging to fight the Ebola pandemic, which has evolved from a health issue to an economic one. "G20 members are committed to do what is necessary to ensure the international effort can extinguish the outbreak and address its medium-term economic and humanitarian costs," the statement said.

BRISBANE: As he seeks to accelerate his economic reform drive, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said reform process is bound to face resistance and wanted it to be insulated from political pressures. Making a strong pitch for economic reforms, Mold told fellow G20 leaders at a Retreat here that reforms should lead to simplification of processes and that methods of governance must be reformed. The retreat was hosted by Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott at the Queensland Parliament House where the leaders met without aides shortly before the annual summit of the 20 industrialised and major economies kicked off at the Brisbane Convention Centre in the afternoon.

BRISBANE: To put the G20 on course to achieve the 2 per cent GDP growth target, governments need to pursue a coordinated increase in wages and investment in infrastructure, the Labour 20 (L20) said Saturday. The group brings together leaders of international organized labour and provides G20 leaders with the perspectives of workers across the world. Sharan Burrow , general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, said L20 economic modelling showed that a coordinated increase in wages and investment in infrastructure could halve the global jobs gap and create up to 5.84 per centage points more growth in G20 countries compared to business as usual, according to Xinhua.

BRISBANE: As visiting G20 leaders trooped one by one into their summit venue, it was a warm hug for the host and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott from his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi . Each leader came into the room at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre one at a time, stopped to shake Abbott's hand and posed for a photo before walking out of the room in the other direction. When Modi, the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Australia in 28 years after Rajiv Gandhi in 1986, made his entry, he gave Abbott a hearty hug. Abbott greeted the dignitaries as he stood in the middle of the room in front of a turquoise wall with the words "Australia 2014" and "G20 Summit Brisbane 2014".